The Secretary of the Dublin section, McKeen, reported that the section: “met with much opposition from the clerical national party. The Dublin section had held a meeting when a member belonging to the Nationalists broke in and threw the meeting into disorder.” In Cork the tables were turned somewhat, when the members of the International there broke into a meeting called to denounce the IWMA, seized the chair after a prolonged battle of fists and broken furniture, and then addressed the crowd of nearly 400 workers in the hall. Despite police harassment, clerical condemnation, abuse in the press, and physical assault the International remained alive in Ireland. DeMorgan reported that the establishment of the International sections “had done much good, all the large firms in that city Cork and the South of Ireland were conceding the nine hours for fear the men should join the International.”
At the Hague Congress of the International news of the spread of the International to Ireland was met with great enthusiasm.
The first Irish section founded in the U.S., Section 7, grew rapidly and attempted to make inroads into the Irish republican societies in existence in America. By November 1871, two new Irish sections were established in America, sections 24 and 28. The first fruit of the labours of these sections was demonstrated in mid-December of the year, when they drew a large Irish contingent to a march of 10,000 people protesting the execution of the Paris communards, led by a number of prominent Fenians.
